Wednesday 29 February 2012

Work in Progress Wednesday - Leap Year Blanket

Appropriately for the 29th of February, I thought I'd share my progress on my Leap Year Blanket - one of my long term works-in-progress...
...these are my blocks for February...
...and sewn together with January's squares...
The gap in the February block is for a Leap Day swapped square from someone else to go in :-)
...and for my part of the swap...
...really pleased with how it turned out...might have to make one for me too ;-)

*check out some more WIP Wednesdays over >>> here <<<

Tuesday 28 February 2012

crochet flower bunting...



...finished and photographed...

What do you think?
...I love it...
☺☻☺☻☺

Monday 27 February 2012

Sunday 26 February 2012

in the hanging garden...

remember these...
...well here they are all joined up and complete with jingly bells...
...jingly bells might be my new favourite thing...
...actually this bunting might be my new favourite thing....
...more photos of that tomorrow when I've taken some daylight ones ;-)

...and today's earworm, for those that have got it now from the title, is 
1982!!really?? 
;-)

Thursday 23 February 2012

Some works progressed...

 One finished puppet :) this one has a home to go to but his twin is available in my shop 
 One finished pair of slipper socks :)
and I'm almost up to date again with the February section of my Leap Year Blanket
☺☻☺☻☺☻☺

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Work(s) in Progress Wednesday...

...tell me I'm not the only one who has a hundred half started things on the go at a time?....please! ;-)
This is just some of them...
 new t-shirt design - they still need the background painting in but I can't decide whether to go with the same colours or something completely different so they're just hanging around at the moment waiting for me to be more decisive (they may wait a while!)...
...two red spider puppets which need sewing...
 ...puppet plans waiting to become puppets...
 ...hexagons for a hexagon blanket...
 ...flowers and bells to decorate my t-shirt rail at markets...
 ...my Leap Year Blanket (obviously a long term WIP but I am a few blocks behind with it)...
 ...square that will be a cushion cover when it's grown some more, but I've run out of the cream...
 ...Chi's slipper socks which I lost the pattern for so had to stop mid heel because I couldn't remember the next bit! - found it again now though :)...
I am going to attempt to get some of them finished, or at least further along, today...

check out some other folks WIP's over here

Tuesday 21 February 2012

fluff



.

Monday 20 February 2012

Five petalled flower pattern

 I wanted to make some flowers to decorate my hanging rail with when I do markets. In my head I know exactly what I want them to look like, but I couldn't find a pattern anywhere that I liked, so I had a go at making one up.
They're not exactly what I want, but they're pretty close. There probably are lots of patterns for similar flowers out there already, but I thought it would be good practice to have a go at writing a pattern out, so please do have a go and give me your feedback on how clear (or not!) my instructions are :-)
(and please excuse the not very well focussed photos!)
UK terms and I used a 4.5mm hook with dk yarn which makes a flower approx. 7cm diameter.

Please use the pattern for your own use only and not for items you intend to sell. Thankyou 
:-)

Round 1 : Yarn1 - chain three (a) and then work nine htr's into the third loop from the hook (loop next to knot)(b)(c) to end up with a circle of ten stitches (d) break off yarn 1.
Round 2: Yarn two - attach yarn two (e) and ch 2 into 1st stitch, htr into same stitch, ch1; *2 htr, 1ch into next stitch* (f); repeat ** in next eight stitches and sl st into top chain of first ch 2 to complete the round (g). break off yarn 2 (h)
Round 3: Yarn 3 - attach yarn three (i) and ch2 in first ch 1 space of previous round (j); slst into next ch 1 space; ch 2 and slst into each ch 1 space (k) ending with a sl st in the space you began from (l) 
(don't break off yarn 3 as you will be using for the next round too)
Round 4: petals (Yarn 3) - each petal is worked in two halves over two of the ch 2 spaces from the previous round - into first ch 2 space (m) work 1 dc, 1 htr, 1 tr and 1 dtr (n), then working into the next ch 2 space work 1 dtr, 1 tr, 1 htr and 1 dc (o), this gives you one full petal; repeat for the remaining four petals (p)
I think the flower looks quite sweet as it is at this stage, but I wanted mine outlined in a contrasting colour. You could leave it here though, or continue Round 5 with the same colour as the rest of the petal if you didn't want the outline edge.

Round 5: Yarn 1 - attach Yarn 1 and begin with a long sl st (ie. insert hook into one of the ch 1 spaces of round 2 (q); pull yarn through (r); and secure with a slip stitch (s); 1 dc into each of next seven stitches (t)
Work one long dc into the 1ch sp of Round 2 (u)(v); and work 1 dc into next seven stitches again. Repeat for each petal (w). make more (x) ;-)

Sunday 19 February 2012

red



"They seek him here, they seek him there..."

I like red. It makes me smile. When it behaves itself.
Unfortunately, when it comes to dyes and fabric paints, it seems to have a bit of an aversion to behaving itself. It plays hide and seek behind pinks and oranges and won't come out to play by itself... which for such a loud colour is surprising really. You'd think it wouldn't be so shy.

Up until now, I've been using Dylon dyes for my hand dyed t-shirts. I can buy them locally and they are easy to use and on the whole they are pretty reliable colourwise - I've done a LOT of dying and only had a couple of occasions where they haven't 'done what they said on the tin' - but they don't do a 'proper' red. 
They have a Burlesque Red (which is actually a purple) and a Tulip Red (which tries a bit harder, but is actually a pink)
So, I bought a couple of  Procion dyes to try out to see if they could do any better.
It looked quite promising to begin with...

...and my camera seems to disagree with my eyes a bit, but the finished result is not red...
...'tis pink...

I'm not sure where I've gone wrong, I followed the instructions carefully. Weighed and measured everything properly. I think perhaps it's just going to take a bit more experimenting - the instructions, while including other materials, are written primarily for people dying wool, and I'm dying cotton. I think it'll be back in the bucket for this t-shirt later and fingers crossed a second dying will do it.

But in the meantime, the search continues as I have the same problem with the paints I use for my painted t-shirts.
I don't want pretending-to-be-red orange, or pretending-to-be-red pink. 
I want blood red, pillar box red, shouty-in-your-face-RED-red. 

We have red clothes in our house, so I know it's out there somewhere! ;-)

Saturday 18 February 2012

hexagons...

...from an Attic24 pattern...

Friday 17 February 2012

peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....

....eeeeeeee-eeeek-a-boo....

....and if you've now got the earworm....click here ;-)

Wednesday 15 February 2012

sneaky peaky....

☺☻☺☻☺

in the shop...

see more
>>>>here<<<<

Sunday 12 February 2012

re-stocking the shop

I spent a while this morning re-stocking my Folksy shop
I need to take some more photos tomorrow so I can add some more but please do pop over and check out what's there :-)